Here Comes the Sun, and I say it's alright!

“In the spring at the end of the day you should smell like dirt”, said one of my favorite writers of all time. Although my garden patch has been neglected (or should I say, returned to the wild) I did manage to smell like dirt, mainly by composting. Forays into gardening have not been going well. Plants (like kids) demand so much love and attention, that I am sad to report I haven't been able to provide. So, amen to the woman who said that we can't have it all. I never seem to be able to manage a good garden. That doesn't mean I didn't welcome spring.

My daughter and I have been participating in Cornell’s Feederwatch since last winter and it has been fascinating to see the change in visitors to our backyard.So far we've been mainly spotting Mourning  Doves, a solitary Red Winged Blackbird, a few Finches, the White Crowned Sparrows, the California Towhees and the occasional Cooper's Hawk. But Mar 21st was special. A Spotted Towhee and a Say’s Phoebe (who I think is nesting at our home) appeared on cue the first day of spring. A baby bunny has also taken over our backyard nibbling on whatever patches of grass it can still find (In Southern California, I don’t plan to have a watered lawn in my backyard, thank you very much!).

Our backyard birding was fully rewarded when a dozen or so cedar waxwings came out of nowhere and alighted on the tree right behind our home! They were probably leaving So Cal having wintered here this season and decided to stop on their way back. Suddenly our daughter found a solitary hooded oriole. All this was in the span of an hour since we woke up on spring day. What a fantastic start!

One of my wise friends who got me started on birding once remarked that the moment you start truly seeing birds, the world will never look the same again. How true! Here we were looking at the waxwings and oriole with wide-eyed wonderment, and a bunch of early morning joggers were going by at the exact same time under the very tree unaware that they were in the midst of such beauty just above them. In a day and age when an experience that is not captured digitally and instagrammed right away is considered not an experience at all, we remained rooted to our spot and didn’t try to grab a phone/camera lest we disturb the birds.

The past three years we have always celebrated the arrival of spring at the San Elijo Lagoon, so off we went egg hunting at the lagoon in true pagan style basking in the glory of Venus and Ishtar. The lagoon captures everything that is amazing about So.Cal in one spot. At the distance you see the Pacific, the railroad, the beach goers and the surfers, and of course our cars. The sun is out and the sky is a picture perfect blue almost cloudless, and you have the lagoon with its coastal sage scrub and its flock of shore birds and visitors both the winged and the legged kind. I knew the spring was off to a great start as we once again caught a glimpse of the elusive Clapper, a Bufflehead and a bunch of Willets and Godwits. A big shout out to all the docents and volunteers who had such amazing exhibits and taught both the kids and adults a thing or two about the biological forms that call the lagoon their home, their summer retreat, or their spring nursery.

The exhibit that showed the different kinds of nests was my favorite. Sure does put all our homes to shame. While we need a thermostat named Nest to keep us comfortable, they make do with few bits and bobs of lichens, spider webs, mud, and straw providing maximum comfort to their little ones.

So that's how we welcomed spring, walking in nature as the poet and prophet Muir informed us receiving far more than we sought. Now the mountains are calling and I must go!